I’m a Single Mom Running My Own Business, Here’s How I Find the Time

Through this same ingenuity, I was able to expand my available work hours to achieve the productivity and income of a full-time job.

I’ve changed when I eat

Switching to the “16:8” model meant I could eat breakfast later, after finishing the morning school run. But what really changed things was my 3 p.m. lunches. This keeps me full after my kids’ dinner time at 7 p.m. One less meal to plan, shop for and prepare.

It helps that I live in Spain, where lunch is traditionally the main meal and dinner is a much lighter – and often later – snack. But it also seems good for my body.

I changed what I eat

I rarely cook in batches. The problem with batch cooking is that it keeps cooking, and it takes time to cook. I opt for no- or low-cook dishes, like pre-made soups and salads or stir-fries with noodles or gnocchi, which cook in just a few minutes.

However, I buy in batches. I calculate how much of each thing we get per week for perishables and per month for non-perishables and buy enough at a time.

This is made easier because I eat the same meal for as many weeks as I can stand. Until now, my limit was five weeks of salmorejo – a cold Spanish soup, similar to gazpacho. The soup hits all the major food groups as it is served with croutons, chopped vegetables, ham and a crumbled boiled egg.

I do my administration in the playground

I spend almost 2 hours a day watching my two sons in the playground after school. It was a downtime until I started taking my little Chromebook with me and working. I leave certain types of tasks specifically for this extra slot I’ve created in my day, like admin and email. When they are happily playing with friends, I often have plenty of time to write marketing content.

Additionally, on the way back from dropping the kids off or picking them up from school, I send myself voice notes that I can then transcribe by AI and turn into material. This is also a great time to listen to podcasts relevant to my business.

Walking has another benefit: it can enhance creativity. That’s what researchers at Stanford University discovered in a study published in 2014 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Participants who walked around saw an 81% increase on tests measuring divergent thinking, a thought process associated with creativity.

I enjoy the sleepless nights

My children are 6 and 9, but they still wake me up regularly at night, whether to go to the bathroom or to throw up. In the past, if I couldn’t get back to sleep, I would lie there restless and awake until the alarm went off. Now I get up and work instead. Thanks to some of those pre-dawn wake-ups, I built a website, launched my business, and consistently met deadlines.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never wake up that early on purpose, but making the most of it has been productive. I usually get a full night’s sleep the next night because I have to go to bed early to compensate. But it’s not like I’m sacrificing my evening social life because I don’t have one as a single mom anyway.

I am inspired by my children

I pitch ideas to them, and things like my company’s logos and name have evolved with their input, because kids have unique and amazing ideas. My 8-year-old once suggested a pricing strategy that I later heard from a business coach: Raise prices until people stop buying, then go back to the number just before.

My children have also been helpful in other ways. For example, because I teach personal finance classes, explaining the concept of the stock market to a 9-year-old helped me. Hearing how he explained it to me also led to successful social media posts. The story was told from the perspective of “if one child can understand this, anyone can understand it.”

I may not be a millionaire entrepreneur yet, but if I get there, this will be how I did it.

Do you have a personal essay about life as a single parent that you want to share? Contact the publisher: akarplus@businessinsider.com.